Convergent Use of Phosphatidic Acid for Hepatitis C Virus and SARS-Cov
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bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.05.10.443480; this version posted May 10, 2021. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. 1 2 Convergent use of phosphatidic acid for Hepatitis C virus and 3 SARS-CoV-2 replication organelle formation 4 5 Keisuke Tabata1†* , Vibhu Prasad1*, David Paul1‡, Ji-Young Lee1, Minh-Tu Pham1, Woan-Ing 6 Twu1, Christopher J. Neufeldt1, Mirko Cortese1, Berati Cerikan1, Cong Si Tran1, Christian 7 Lüchtenborg2, Philip V’kovski3,4, Katrin Hörmann5, André C. Müller5, Carolin Zitzmann6‼, 8 Uta Haselmann1, Jürgen Beneke7, Lars Kaderali6, Holger Erfle7, Volker Thiel3,4, Volker 9 Lohmann1, Giulio Superti-Furga5,8, Britta Brügger2, and Ralf Bartenschlager1,9,10, & 10 11 Affiliations: 12 1Department of Infectious Diseases, Molecular Virology, Heidelberg University, 13 Heidelberg, Germany 14 2Biochemistry Center Heidelberg, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany 15 3Institute of Virology and Immunology IVI, Bern, Switzerland. 16 4Department of Infectious Diseases and Pathobiology, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of 17 Bern, Bern, Switzerland. 18 5CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, 19 Vienna, Austria. 20 6Institute of Bioinformatics and Center for Functional Genomics of Microbes, University 21 Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany. 22 7BioQuant, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany. 23 8Center for Physiology and Pharmacology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria. 24 9Division Virus-Associated Carcinogenesis, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, 25 Germany 26 10German Center for Infection Research, Heidelberg Partner Site, Heidelberg, Germany 27 28 †Keisuke Tabata: Department of Genetics, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, 29 Osaka, Japan; Laboratory of Intracellular Membrane Dynamics, Graduate School of Frontier 30 Biosciences, Osaka University 31 ‡David Paul: MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Francis Crick Avenue, Cambridge 32 CB2 0QH, UK 33 ‼Carolin Zitzmann: Los Alamos National Laboratory, Theoretical Biology and Biophysics 34 Los Alamos, NM, USA 35 36 * These authors contributed equally to this work 37 38 & Correspondence: 39 Ralf Bartenschlager: [email protected] ; Phone: +49-6221- 40 564225; Fax: +49-6221-564570 41 1 bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.05.10.443480; this version posted May 10, 2021. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. 42 Abstract 43 Double membrane vesicles (DMVs) are used as replication organelles by phylogenetically 44 and biologically distant pathogenic RNA viruses such as hepatitis C virus (HCV) and severe 45 acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). Viral DMVs are morphologically 46 analogous to DMVs formed during autophagy, and although the proteins required for DMV 47 formation are extensively studied, the lipids driving their biogenesis are largely unknown. 48 Here we show that production of the lipid phosphatidic acid (PA) by acylglycerolphosphate 49 acyltransferase (AGPAT) 1 and 2 in the ER is important for DMV biogenesis in viral 50 replication and autophagy. Using DMVs in HCV-replicating cells as model, we found that 51 AGPATs are recruited to and critically contribute to HCV replication and DMV formation. 52 AGPAT1/2 double knockout also impaired SARS-CoV-2 replication and the formation of 53 autophagosome-like structures. By using correlative light and electron microscopy, we 54 observed the relocalization of AGPAT proteins to HCV and SARS-CoV-2 induced DMVs. In 55 addition, an intracellular PA sensor accumulated at viral DMV formation sites, consistent 56 with elevated levels of PA in fractions of purified DMVs analyzed by lipidomics. Apart from 57 AGPATs, PA is generated by alternative pathways via phosphotidylcholine (PC) and 58 diacylglycerol (DAG). Pharmacological inhibition of these synthesis pathways also impaired 59 HCV and SARS-CoV-2 replication as well as formation of autophagosome-like DMVs. 60 These data identify PA as an important lipid used for replication organelle formation by HCV 61 and SARS-CoV-2, two phylogenetically disparate viruses causing very different diseases, i.e. 62 chronic liver disease and COVID-19, respectively. In addition, our data argue that host- 63 targeting therapy aiming at PA synthesis pathways might be suitable to attenuate replication 64 of these viruses. 65 66 One Sentence Summary 67 Phosphatidic acid is important for the formation of double membrane vesicles, serving as 68 replication organelles of hepatitis C virus and SARS-CoV-2, and offering a possible host- 69 targeting strategy to treat SARS-CoV-2 infection. 70 71 72 Main Text 73 Chronic hepatitis C and COVID-19 are major medical problems. Both diseases are 74 caused by viral infections inflicting a large number of people and having led to millions of 75 deaths 1, 2. Chronic hepatitis C is caused by persistent infection with the hepatitis C virus 76 (HCV), while COVID-19 is due to acute infection with the severe acute respiratory syndrome 77 coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). Both viruses are biologically very distinct e.g. by having a 78 very narrow tropism and a predominantly persistent course of infection in the case of HCV, 79 contrasting the rather broad tropism and acute self-limiting course of infection in the case of 80 SARS-CoV-2. This biological distinction is reflected by their phylogenetic distance with 81 HCV belonging to the Flaviviridae and SARS-CoV-2 being a member of the Coronaviridae 82 virus family 3. In spite of these differences, both viruses possess a single strand RNA genome 83 of positive polarity that is replicated in membranous vesicles in the cytoplasm of infected 84 cells 4, 5. These vesicles are induced by viral proteins, in concert with cellular factors, and 85 composed of two membrane bilayers, thus corresponding to double-membrane vesicles 86 (DMVs). These DMVs accumulate in infected cells and can be regarded as viral replication 87 organelle. Viral DMVs have morphological similarity to autophagosomes 6, 7, but while 88 autophagy-induced DMVs serve to engulf cellular content and damaged organelles for 89 subsequent degradation, viral DMVs create a conducive and protective environment for 90 productive viral RNA replication. In the case of HCV and SARS-CoV-2, DMVs are derived 2 bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.05.10.443480; this version posted May 10, 2021. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. 91 from the ER 8, 9, 10 and can be induced by the nonstructural proteins (NS)3, 4A, 4B, 5A and 92 5B in the case of HCV 7 and the viral proteins nsp3-4 in the case of MERS-CoV and SARS- 93 CoV 11, 12, alongside with co-opted host cell proteins and lipids. Here, we set-out to search for 94 common host cell factors exploited by the phylogenetically distant HCV and SARS-CoV-2 to 95 build up their cytoplasmic replication organelle. 96 Using HCV as a model to study DMV biogenesis, we purified DMVs under native 97 conditions and determined their molecular composition by proteomic profiling (Fig. 1A and 98 B). To this end we used human hepatoma cells (Huh7) containing a self-replicating HCV 99 replicon RNA (designated sg4BHA31R; 13) in which NS4B was HA-tagged (fig. S1A). This 100 RNA replicates autonomously and induces an extensive array of DMVs that can be isolated 101 by HA-affinity purification 13. Mass spectrometry-based proteomics analysis identified a total 102 of 1487 proteins significantly enriched in the NS4B-HA sample relative to the untagged 103 technical negative control (using SAINT average P-values >0.95) (data S1). Label free 104 quantitation (LFQ) revealed a major overlap of proteins (1542) between the NS4B-HA 105 complex and HCV-naïve ER membranes purified in parallel from Huh7 cells stably 106 expressing HA-tagged Calnexin (CNX-HA) (Fig. 1B and fig. S1B). Of note, 309 proteins 107 were significantly enriched in the NS4B-HA sample relative to the ER control with an over- 108 representation of proteins involved in RNA metabolism, intracellular vesicle organization and 109 transport as well as endomembrane organization (fig. S2). Given our interest in identifying 110 proteins of relevance for DMV formation, we selected 139 candidates with a bias for proteins 111 involved in vesicle transport and biogenesis as well as lipid metabolism. These candidates 112 were validated with respect to their role in HCV replication by using RNA interference-based 113 screening (Fig. 1C and data S2). In this way we could validate 38 hits as HCV dependency 114 factors. Amongst identified hits were acylglycerolphosphate acyltransferase (AGPAT) 1 and 115 2, two enzymes that catalyze the de novo formation of phosphatidic acid (PA), a precursor to 116 di- and triacylglycerols as well as all glycerophospholipids 14, 15. In addition, PA is involved 117 in signaling and protein recruitment to membranes and, owing to its small and highly charged 118 head group, promotes membrane curvature 16, 17, 18. Since these properties might be involved 119 in DMV formation, we focused our subsequent analysis on AGPATs. 120 AGPATs play crucial roles in lipid homeostasis, because enzyme-inactivating mutations 121 in AGPAT2 are linked to congenital generalized lipodystrophy and defects in PA metabolism 122 as well as autophagy are associated with neurological disorders and chronic obstructive 123 pulmonary disease 18, 19. Moreover, severe lipodystrophy as well as extreme insulin resistance 124 and hepatic steatosis have been observed in AGPAT2-/- mice 14. To date, 11 AGPATs have 125 been identified in mammalian cells. AGPAT1 to 5 preferentially utilize lysophosphatidic acid 126 (LPA) as an acyl donor while AGPAT6 to 11 preferentially utilize alternative 127 lysophospholipid substrates or have a preference for glycerol-3-phosphate.